A surprising benefit of electric cars: Cooler cities

The study, published in Nature Scientific Reports on Thursday, deduced that switching from conventional gas-burning vehicles to electric ones would have a positive impact on a phenomenon called the urban heat island effect, which refers to the observation that cities tend to be hotter than surrounding rural areas. “The replacement of conventional vehicles by electrical vehicles can reduce heat emission in urban areas,” lead author Canbing Li, of China’s Hunan University, told CBS News.